The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a recording medium, a program, and data. More particularly, the invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a recording medium, a program, and data for displaying information about contents.
Diverse kinds of information processing apparatuses available today such as personal computers, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and portable players are capable of reproducing different types of content including music, movies and TV broadcast programs.
These apparatuses manage contents in diverse manners, e.g., selecting and reproducing desired contents, rearranging content items into groups, moving contents from one apparatus to another, or editing content-related information such as performers' names and content titles. In handling content under its management, the information processing apparatus displays such content-related information on an internal or external display device connected to it. The user of the apparatus looks at the display and, based on what is being displayed, gives the apparatus various instructions such as reproduction or movement of contents.
Some apparatuses are arranged to record management information to a disk name area of the UTOC sector on a magneto-optical disk, the management information being constituted by program number range information “n1-n2” designating the numbers of programs making up groups corresponding to albums, by special codes “//” for delimiting group names representing a plurality of album names, and by the group names. The arrangement is designed to manage a plurality of programs recorded in a program area as a plurality of groups for editing purposes. One such apparatus is disclosed illustratively in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-150749.
One problem with portable players is that their users find it more troublesome and time-consuming to search for a desired content item the larger the number of content items stored therein.
Illustratively, some portable players incorporate a mass storage medium such as a hard disk that requires their users to manipulate groups of content only in sequential fashion for reproduction. If there are more than 100 groups of content to deal with, the user has a hard time managing these groups or pieces of music efficiently.
That type of portable player generally has a limited ability to process editing work. It has been difficult for such players to handle groups of content in a tree structure that demands heavy burdens on the processing by the player.
Furthermore, the manner in which the information processing apparatus controls the display of information about the contents it handles is typically contingent on each specific type of the apparatus or the display device connected thereto. In other words, a given way of displaying content-related information cannot be shared by different information processing apparatuses or display devices with different capabilities for processing or display.